Family Filmgoer

May 4, 2007|JANE HOROWITZ

The Condemned

(R, 111 min.)

Talk about cynical showbiz exploitation! This bone-cracking, bloodletting action flick (it is barely a movie, really) dares to inject a sanctimonious sermon near the end about the sleazy nature of reality shows -- the people who produce them and those who watch them -- while at the same time telling an ultraviolent tale about taking that very genre to its extreme. That is, plucking 10 death row inmates from around the world and letting them loose on an island to kill one another, offering freedom to the winner. Cameras catch the mayhem and stream it live on the Internet, viewable for $49.95.

Despite the presence of wrestler Steve Austin (not a bad actor), the violence in The Condemned looks far uglier than a WWE match and is dubious fare for teens younger than 17. It portrays knifings, point-blank shootings, leg-breaking fights, implied rape and torture and people getting blown up. Add to the mix profanity, ethnic slurs, milder sexual innuendo, drinking and smoking.

Hot Fuzz

(R, 121 min.)

From the funny Brits who gave us the joyfully tasteless zombie spoof Shaun of the Dead comes Hot Fuzz, a sendup of cop buddy pictures. The film is more appropriate for college kids than high-schoolers. It includes graphic images of violence, albeit comedically intended, with severed heads, charred and decaying corpses, bloody crime scenes, stabbings and shootings. The dialogue includes extra-crude sexist slang, strong profanity, an ethnic slur, drug references and toilet humor. Characters smoke, and drink -- including teens.

Sergeant Angel (Simon Pegg, who co-wrote the film) is such an obsessive, by-the-book London cop that his colleagues can't stand him. He's transferred to a picturesque village where the few cops do little but eat cake. Angel suspects recent deaths in the town were not accidents, but he can't convince his clueless new partner or anyone else.

Are We Done Yet? (PG) Sequel to Ice Cube's 2005 comedy Are We There Yet? brings him back as a family man who moves into a house that needs major repairs. Mild sexual innuendo; comic scenes with disturbing action from animals; toilet humor.

Disturbia A troubled kid hits a teacher and gets three months' house arrest; bored, he starts spying on neighbors with two pals; they suspect one man of being a serial killer. Female victims shown wrapped in plastic; hints of the killer at work -- screams, blood spattering; understated sexual innuendo; semi-nude women; infidelity theme; profanity; drug reference. Not for middle-schoolers.

In the Land of Women A young writer suffering from a broken heart visits his cranky, frail grandmother in Michigan and strikes up a fraught friendship (laced with romance) with the unhappy housewife across the street, her angry, insecure teen daughter and her perceptive younger girl. Themes deal with marital infidelity, fears that a parent will die, teen sexual insecurities; middling profanity; mild sexual innuendo; homophobic slur; drug reference. High-schoolers.

Vacancy Tale of an estranged couple stranded at a seedy motel where they realize the mild clerk and a few cohorts torture and kill "guests," recording the mayhem on hidden cameras as fodder for "snuff" films. The violence is not exceptionally gory; videos and film's more immediate face-offs are intense and bloody: victims' screams, stabbings, shootings, sweaty tunnel chases, a car crash; partial nudity; hints of rape; strong profanity; crude sexist remark. 17 & older.